Many months, or perhaps even a few years ago, I started a project of collecting quotations related to art. My intention was to create a set of "affirmation cards", crediting the authors of each quote, and presenting the cards in a colorful, unique, and personalized way.
The steps I took were these:
*I made a template of 6 cards per letter sized page, with a geometric border around each one.
*I made a template of a card back, surrounded by the same border and using just one of my paintings for the whole intended "deck".
*Using Sharpie pens, I wrote a quote on each card and colored the borders. I made 52, one per week for the year although the cards could be used in many different ways, as desired by each artist.
*I briefly thought of printing them on my printer, 2 sided, but quickly abandoned the thought due to the quantity of ink it would take and the time involved. Probably 24/7 for about a month. . . .
*I talked about the project with David Bays at Bays Printing on Blackstone Avenue in Fresno and got a price quote.
*I abandoned the idea because I couldn't afford it! Left the masters for the cards at the printer's for months, hoping to come into a "windfall".
*Came into a "windfall" (ha!), returned to the printer, found that the masters (the only copy, of course!) had been lost or thrown away.
*The cards were found. Yippee! We revised the plan for the cards a bit, now using a large assortment of my paintings for the backs, each surrounded by a black border.
*He printed a sample, I proofed them, and loved them. The printing of 100 sets began.
*Printing was completed and a nightmare day of cutting began for him. It would have been a nightmare YEAR for me had I cut them by hand as I originally planned to do.
*I paid for them, picked them up--a large, heavy box with 55+ rubber-banded sets of cards.
*I started collating them--may never finish!--and started trying to decide on packaging.
*Decided to make (Ha!) 100 boxes using a template, using extra cards for front and back. Started coloring them with Sharpies on white cardstock. Each box is personally "signed" by me.
*Made 3 boxes. Went to the scrapbooking paper department for 2 sided, colorful paper.
*Now have ten boxes complete, plus 2 more that sold yesterday--the first day I showed them to anyone!
*Have orders for 3 more sets and will take them to my class this weekend. Marketing has not yet officially begun.
*Found clear plastic boxes online that are made for 55 trading cards which should be a perfect fit.
*Will order some boxes and offer customers a choice of handmade paper boxes or slightly more durable clear plastic boxes which will save me the time of making a whole 100 paper boxes.
Words of Wisdom and Inspiration for Artists, collected, written out, and packaged
by Kathleen Mattox, Mixed Media Artist, are now available.
Price: $12.00 per set.
Mailed: $13.00 per set.
If you would like a set, leave me a comment below with your name and box color (give me 2 choices, please) desired. I will have most basic colors and some boxes with a pattern on the outside and a different pattern on the inside--really unique! Clear boxes are not yet available. If I can "hand deliver" your set to you, I will. If I need to mail it to you, I'll need an address via my email at
kathleenmattox@gmail.com
Please let me know what you think and how many sets you would like. These will make great gifts for your artist friends in addition to your own personal set.
PS. For once, it is not yet midnight! How 'bout that?
All of a sudden my mind took some quick turns and transported me back to something the late Monte Guynes told his art classes about ten years ago. He said "Don't finish the painting for them--let THEM do that!" He was a firm believer in NOT finishing every detail of a painting--of letting the viewer put themselves into it, in leaving something mysterious about it so that the viewer could finish it and fill it in with his/her own imagination. "If you don't have enough information about a painting, your imagination kicks in and fills in the blanks." And the odds are that your imagination completes it in a way that satisfies YOU and makes it complete and often becomes the reason that you painted the painting or that you purchased the painting.
So, what if you left something mysterious, nebulous, or un-said about that painting that you're currently working on? Let the viewer add the details of the face if it's a painting with a person in it. Let the viewer's mind embellish the landscape in the area where you've left soft edges. Let the viewer put something of himself/herself into the painting that makes it truly theirs. Sometimes it's a sale when you do. . . . . . .
